In what year was the first edition of Goya's “The Disasters of War” published? The answer is 1863.
Francisco Goya created most of the 80 prints between about 1810 and 1815, during and after the Peninsular War against Napoleonic France. The etchings record executions, famine, mutilation, displacement and the suffering of civilians rather than presenting war as heroic spectacle.
The series was not published during Goya's lifetime. After his death in 1828, the plates remained unavailable to the public for decades, probably because their criticism could be politically dangerous under both French influence and the restored Spanish monarchy. The Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid issued the first edition in 1863, 35 years after Goya died.
A common mix-up is to confuse the date of creation with publication: the prints belong mainly to the 1810s, while the first bound edition appeared in 1863. The first edition contained 80 prints; two additional plates were not included until later.